to think there is something wrong with Americans?

[TheBloodManCometh]

In Colorado, here for 5 weeks.

Why the HELL is there a half inch gap on either side of the door in all public toilets?? You can see everything going on!!!
This has been the case everywhere I've been in America?
AIBU to be both baffled and embarrassed

lighthearted btw. I don't really think there's something wrong with the Americans

Oh ladies. You really need to go to Japan and try their toilets. I'll have a look and see if I can find the picture I took of the controls.

I want to go to Japan solely for the experience of using their hi tech toilets. This is a genuine sad goal of mine.

I would be scared of pushing the wrong button in a Japanese toilet and something alarming happening.

someone mentioned german loos were designed like this originally due to wormy meat and to check it, delightful.

video - sick people eughh

Dia
When we landed at the airport and got of the plane I was desperate for a wee. My very first experience of Japan was the loos.

The toilets there were of course set up for visitors from many nations so there were signs on each cubicle door saying what kind of toilet it was: western (like we would find at home in the UK), squat, or washlet (which is the standard button controlled ones. I was stupid excited to use the washlet.

Yep weird,never understood. Also made a tit of myself in NYC when I called the hotel reception to say I think the toilet is blocked,not realising the water is always halfway up the pan over there :/ lol

Squeaky

This might help: www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/what-british-people-say-versus-what-they-mean

Commode is an American word for toilet, meaning the fixture. It's used mainly in the South. It is also used generally for the portable kind of toilet pictured above, but often referred to as a bedside commode to differentiate from a commode (toilet) attached to the wall.

Saying "poop" is not prudish. It's just the US word for "poo."

Washroom is used more in Canada. Restroom is used for more for public facilities; you would not refer to the bathroom in your house as a restroom. Also I think some of this may come from the common arrangement of having all the fixtures in the same room. In the US, the toilet was and is usually in the same room as the bath tub.

Ok, this will out me to a particular class of MNer, but:

A couple of years ago I went to a conference held in an American university. We were staying in the students' dorm rooms (and my god, they are puritanical! I was really sorry for those kids). Each room was connected to the next one by a shared bathroom. Sounds fine, right?

Only, the loo had no door at all, and while you could lock the door into your own room, you could not lock the door into the next room, so your neighbour had absolutely no way of knowing not to walk in on you, in full view, on the loo.

I am not especially prudish but it made me cringe. Imagine being 18 and paired up with someone you'd never met in your life, and coping with that?!

No door to the shower, either, so plenty of accidental nudity possibilities.

I do think parts of the US are quite prudish. All that no sex before marriage, silver ring kind of culture is. But it's such a huge country, I guess there's as much difference between different parts as there is between the US and the UK as countries.

I guess a whole platoon can take a dump while looking at/chatting with each other

it's in the German classic novel All quiet on the Western Front, too. He enthuses about the healthiness of young men (the soldiers) sharing their bowel movements in fresh air, chatting about whatever else.

I had fun trying to explain to DC that 'restroom' was for toilets in a public place, and 'bathroom' for toilets anywhere. You never have restrooms in a private house.

Love America, love Americans; especially my US step family. Hate the gaps in toilet doors. Years ago I was confused about the bathroom thing for a public convenience because there wasn't a bath in there.

Oh said there were marine style communal toilets in NYC when we were there 15 years ago.

My best and fave is a proper cubical with plush fittings, toilet, hand basin and dryer in one room. We have them in work and I've seen them in restaurants too.

I would only wee in a public toilet anyway unless it was a dire emergency. would hate it in USA one as so exposed and no lid to put down afterwards. I'm prudish and I won't change. probably why we go to usa most years as at least toilets are reasonable even at beaches despite the door design.

*Only, the loo had no door at all, and while you could lock the door into your own room, you could not lock the door into the next room, so your neighbour had absolutely no way of knowing not to walk in on you, in full view, on the loo.

I am not especially prudish but it made me cringe. Imagine being 18 and paired up with someone you'd never met in your life, and coping with that?!

No door to the shower, either, so plenty of accidental nudity possibilities.*

My university dorm room was like this. There's this thing called "knocking" where you tap your knuckles on the door and if there's anyone inside she'll say "just a minute" or similar. It worked really well actually, far better than having someone go in, lock both doors, then go back into her room forgetting to unlock the other door and locking the other set of roommates out of the bathroom entirely.

Oh, sure, but you'd have to trust your neighbour to do it. I was staying with my mate, and we could barely hear each other knocking when people were talking past in the corridor - I sincerely doubt when the whole place was full of students it would have been a workable system!

They told us it was so that people couldn't maliciously shut the other person out of the bathroom, so obviously it'd been thought about, but why on earth not just put doors on the loo and shower so it wouldn't be an issue?!

It was the most bizarre place, anyway. Very, very Spartan rooms with lino on the floor, metal-frame bed and slat blinds on the windows like in an office. Yet the outside area was all beautifully landscaped and so on. So I don't think it was a money thing, presumably it was meant to be character building or somesuch?

Squeaky ref: Why do you guys say "Quite good" when you really mean "Not good at all"? Some things are just weird cultural quirks.

Quite good = not good at all
Quite good! = really rather good, almost very good.

I used to have a client headquartered in the US with a London office and about 20% American employees there. Bugger me sideways if they hadn't put American-style cubicles in, gaps and all, as part of the fit-out.

It's Sunday. Dh is working and I've just searched for German toilets on you tube. Not a good idea. Thank you op. (Wonders off to do the washing up)

I was stupid excited to use the washlet.

Oh i would be too! Ever since i watched a bbc four documentary on the history of the toilet and they visited japan. I didnt know these types of loos existed bug now i want one. I will have one. I will.

I lived in a shared house where there was no bolt on the bathroom. Usually it was just shut door= being used, open door=not being used. But I was on the loo when a housemate walked in! It was such a big bathroom that he went to the sink to wash his hands and only noticed me as he was leaving Luckily I had time to kind of crouch over/cover up while he washed his hands. he was very the rest of the time I lived there!

Squeaky

And this should make things crystal clear :o

m.tickld.com/x/30-things-british-people-say-vs-what-we-actually-mean-9-is-perfect

I must be very unobservant, as having lived in the US for a while I never once noticed this Toilet-Door-Gap thing.

Mind you, I was also unobservant enough to not realise that the soil pipe was blocked in the new rental house until I spotted the toilet paper in the yard

IScreamForIceCream LOL! Actually, the red is what those phrases mean in America.

I do know we're much more direct and literal in the way we speak than British people.

Whoops. Pipbin posted the link.

Though I think I was going to say something to Iscream initially?

Clearly it's time for sleep.

I'm thrilled and amazed that 10 pages in and I haven't been accused of being a poo troll for starting this thread

I am currently in China. Plenty of loos have no door at all. Quite a few have no flush mechanism either. I would happily swap for an American-style door with holes at the side!